Only someone on the extreme right would even consider quoting Joan Peters,
who has been rightfully discredited by every respectable scholar. It would
not matter if what she said was true because it was so poorly documented.
you really need to find another source to quote. Joan Peters was a
reporter (I don't know what she is now) and she was no historian nor did
she even pretend to be. If her conclusions were different from where she
started it doesn't mean she was convinced by logic; she could just as well
have been influenced by scholarship as poor as her own.
Martin Kramer from Kings College who is a scholar provides some insight
into how not to draw conclusions selectively and with some embellishment
in his review of From Time Immemorial:
"This arrogant style admits no understatement, and it ruins arguments that
would be utterly irrefutable were they presented with a higher regard for
factual precision. Example: The record of Arab collaboration with the Axis
is damning enough without Peters� astonishing assertion that the Mufti of
Jerusalem �was personally responsible for the concentration camp slaughter
of hundreds of thousands of Jews, if not more.� Why, in that event, did
Israel fail to punish him, and instead allow him to circulate for another
30 years until old age claimed him�not under an assumed name in South
America, but in Beirut, where he lived as a celebrity? Peters is simply
wrong. The Mufti was a political collaborator and ideological ally of Nazi
Germany; but he was not what she calls a �coordinator� of the Final
Solution. In one stroke of exaggeration, Peters has completely obfuscated
the meaning of responsibility for the Holocaust."
and,
"Oddly, too, her indictment of Britain�s Palestine policy is out of step
with current Israeli scholarship, which is more inclined to regard
Britain�s role in the creation of a Jewish homeland as indispensable. In
short, indignation has gotten the better of her, and has left this polemic
vulnerable on points of fact and interpretation."
As for her argument about demographics, he says, she is probably right
about much of it. But the damage is already done......
Hank
On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Minelle Paloff wrote:
>
>
> Actually -- from what I remember from Peter's book, she does not claim
> that the land was empty when the Jews came......but that there had been a
> continuous presence in the land......From Time Immemorial.......it's a good
> book.......she actually began it with bias towards the Palestinians....but
> in her research became more favored towards the Jews. I was particularly
> struck by some of the comments of the Arab leaders.......concerning using
> the Palestinians as political pawns, etc. Even now, today, with Arafat
> deceased, we find that he hid BILLIONS of dollars in which he could have
> helped the people. From a personal point of view, looking at mid-east
> maps.......look how vast the Arab land is......and with their wealth, could
> have build the people all fine homes......instead they chose to be
> ungenerous and keep these people in poor camps and focus on a tiny strip of
> land which was unproductive until more Jews came in, Jews surviving the
> Holocaust, etc.
> Minelle Paloff
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